The 2023/24 season PSL calendar has all but concluded with only this weekend's eagerly awaited Nedbank Cup final remaining between Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates, while Tshegofatso Mabasa has finished the campaign as the top goal scorer in the league.
Mabasa has been the talk of town after finishing with 16 goals, having started the season with Moroka Swallows where he netted some of the goals while on loan from the Buccaneers.
Following Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos' selection of his preliminary squad two weeks ago for next month's 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Nigeria, there have been questions asked in the fraternity about Mabasa's omission from the list.
Taking nothing away from the 27-year-old striker's form and hard work, there are those who feel that the numbers in the top goal scorer's category are not as inspiring as they used to in the early days of the PSL.
With this having been an occurrence for several seasons, football legend and former Kaizer Chiefs star Lucky Stylianou has joined the discussion on what could be the cause for the reducing numbers of goals in the league.
The Good
"If you go back to our era, there were plenty of goal scorers and they would score 20, 25 to 35 goals, and so on. Collins Mbesuma scored 35 goals during his time with Kaizer Chiefs, and guys like Fani (Madida) scored 25 or more goals," said Stylianou.
The Bad
"The game has changed, and I think the reason why there have not been too many goals is that most of the coaches nowadays prefer using defensive tactics to grind the results. Also, you must remember one thing that all top leagues worldwide are won by the same club every year. The teams that come 6th, 10th, or 12th, for them and their supporters that's success. If you're talking about Everton, they are not scoring goals. Their duty is to stay in the Premier League. There is a reason that there haven't been too many goals scored and one of those is that the teams haven't been attacking enough. Also, the defensive approach of some coaches is contributing to this problem. Many times, mid-table teams or those in the bottom half of the league go to matches looking for a draw and they plan their tactics aiming to achieve that. Another reason that our players don't score too many goals is that we lack tall strikers. You can see a player going down the line and he's got six players in the box but none of them manages to get to the end of the cross. But if you've got a big and tall striker like (Erling) Haaland, it makes for a huge difference. South Africa lacks a big number 9," he said.
The Ugly
"What I can tell you about the centre-backs is that they hate a big striker. They always panic around big and tall strikers and that usually leads them to making mistakes. So, we need to develop big number 9s who will be able to beat defenders on the ground. There is nothing wrong with whipping crosses in, but you've got to have players who are accurate to get to the end of it," added the legend.
'Black kids in this country are blessed with skill and speed'
"Black kids in this country are blessed with skill and speed. However, in most instances that doesn't always translate to goals being scored. One of the best strikers we have ever exported is Benni McCarthy and that was more than 20 years ago. It's not nice that in a nation of over 60 million of population there's only one good striker that went to Europe in over 20 years," concluded Stylianou.
Who is your all-time favourite PSL striker and why?
